Brotherly Love

A photo album by Smilebox

5 on Friday

As always, here are 5 special reasons I'm loving my boys this week:

1. During dinner Justin pulled me in close to him. I thought he was going to try and feed me his food but to my surprise he took my corn on the cob from me. He played with it at first but eventually it made its way to his mouth.

2. In one day Justin ate grits and toast for breakfast, snacked on Nathan's puffs and his veggie puffs, ate 3 bowls of Spaghettios, drank 3 cups of Pediasure AND ate applesauce. How awesome is that!

3. I always tell Justin "goodnight" and "mommy loves you" at bedtime. After I laid J down Sunday night he told me goodnight.

4. Looks like we may have another hair stylist/master barber in the family. During bath time Aiden got a kick out of washing Justin's hair. After massaging his hair he poured water on J's hair to rinse the soap off.

5. Aiden and Justin love playing in J's room and climbing up the stairs to head to his room. They were playing in the living room and I yelled out "alright boys" and they both rushed to the gate. They knew exactly what that means and couldn't wait to get upstairs.

We have a crawler

or should I say a slider, lol. Check out Nathan army crawling.

Running on E

That's how I feel after getting about only 6 hours of sleep this past weekend. Nathan was up every hour on the hour Saturday night and last night J threw up 4 times. I tried rocking him in the glider, walking with him, laying him down in his crib and rubbing his back but he was pretty inconsolable. After changing his clothes and sheets twice I brought him to bed with me thinking that might help calm him down but he tossed and turned. Needless to say I was feeling pretty depleted when he did finally settle down and I was able to get in bed. But of course Nathan woke up as soon as I laid down.

J hasn't thrown up out of the blue in quite some time but he wasn't warm to touch and didn't have a fever so of course I feared that his reflux was rearing its ugly head; just as I thought we were finally turning a corner. He threw up 3 times this morning but was able to keep down the Pedialyte Carlene gave him just before his nap. He also kept down his milk after his nap and was back to his usual happy self and snacked away on Goldfish. He had no problems eating his soup for dinner and even wanted the sweet potatoes I was feeding Nathan. So now I'm pretty positive that it was something he ate yesterday that didn't agree with him and just needed to work it's way out of his system. Here's hoping tonight's a lot better than last night.

NICU Reunion

Justin definitely made his mark during his 116 days in the NICU. Not sure if it's the fact that he was the smallest baby ever born in that NICU or his eyelashes that everyone seems to notice from across the room, but all of the NICU staff were excited to see J and hear how well he's doing. And it was funny to hear them say "oh, he's so big". I'm not used to hearing that, but obviously no one knows better than them how far he's come. We enjoyed visiting with everyone, but were especially excited to see Rosette, J's primary care nurse and Charlotte, who trained with Rosette. J was Charlotte's first micro preemie, first baby on a ventilator, pretty much first everything.

This free photo collage made with Smilebox

Boys Will Be Boys

J and AJ love climbing in everything!

Sweet Dreams

5 on Friday

As always, here are 5 special reasons I'm loving my boys this week.

1. Sunday night I was clipping Nathan's fingernails when J walked up to me and stuck his finger in my face and requested that I clip his nails too.

2. Carlene handed J his milk and he politely responded with "thank you".

3. Nathan is becoming much more mobile. He's not crawling yet but he's really revving to go. Although, I wonder if he'll skip crawling altogether since he's starting to pull himself up.

4. J and AJ love Jack's Music Show. During one episode they did the "Freeze Dance" and J and AJ froze and started up dancing again on cue.

5. We bought a new security gate to keep the boys out of the kitchen but they quickly figured out how to work it and bumrushed the gate together. I guess you have to love this stage of problem solving, lol.

8 months

Yo Gabba Gabba Live

I'm not sure who had more fun at Yo Gabba Gabba Live, the kids or the parents.

This free picture slideshow created with Smilebox

Start Em Young, Raise Em Right

The boys were ready bright & early for todays Michigan State vs. U of M game. Go State!

5 on Friday

As always, here are 5 special reasons I'm loving my boys this week:

1. During our trip home from Lansing Sunday I kept sneaking peaks at J through the headrest in the car and every time I turned around J gave me the biggest smile.

2. Carlene was reading Dr. Suess' Alphabet Book to J and AJ and J laughed at every single page while AJ looked at him "thinking what in the world is so funny?".

3. J's newest thing is feeding the person who's feeding him. Well Saturday J was snacking on Cheerios and Bailey walked by so he tried to feed her a Cheerio.

4. Lalla and Ariana visited Wednesday and J kept tugging on Ari's car seat whenever she wasn't in it. I'm sure he was trying to fasten the buckles, but he was tugging so hard that if we hadn't stopped him he probably would've pulled it off the chair. But when he walked by later and saw Ari in the car seat he didn't even touch it.

5. I was getting ready in the bathroom Wednesday morning and Carlene was taking the boys downstairs for breakfast so I said to J "go with TC, mommy will see you in a bit" and he smiled at me and said "ok".

Back to Normal

Either J had a 24 hour bug or the Benadyrl/Tylenol combination worked wonders because J's back to his old bubbly and independent self. Just a day after our trip to the Dr. he was doing handstands in Nathan's bassinet.

Another free picture collage by Smilebox

Are They Twins

At this point I'm pretty used to getting that question whenever Carlene and I are out together with the boys. And I get it; after all, J and AJ are the same size. Actually no, AJ's now bigger than J, but that's a sore subject so we won't go there.

But what I don't get are the comments we get from people when we say no, they're cousins: but they look so much alike, but they're the same size, are you sure?. Why is it so hard to believe that cousins can look alike when their moms ARE twins. Why is it so hard to believe that 2 sisters could be pregnant at the same time and have kids that are the same age. And the last comment really baffles me; why in the world are you asking me if I'm sure. I think I'd know if I had carried and given birth to twins. The more observant ones will comment "oh yes, he(J)is more advanced developmentally", but that's rare that someone pays that close attention.

P.S. Why do people ask if the boys are triplets??? I can understand AJ and J, but Nathan. Come on now, he's not even walking.

5 on Friday

Here are 5 special reasons I'm loving my boys this week:

1. My hands were full when I came down the steps so Justin ran to the foot of the stairs and helped me open the security gate.

2. Justin rubbed the thermometer on his forehead and then checked the screen. When the temperature didn't register he hit the reset button and tried again. Then he cleared out the screen and took my temperature.

3. Nathan has discovered the mirror on the car headrest and smiles when we put him in the car. He likes to pull himself upright so he can get a good look at himself in the mirror.

4. AJ loves to dance, even without music. This morning I started clapping my hands and he started stomping his feet and waving his hands in the air.

5. Carlene was cleaning up spilled goldfish so J grabbed the dustpan and held it straight for her while she swept up the mess.